Viktor Kupradze

Viktor Kupradze served as Rector of Tbilisi State University from 1954 to 1959 after a distinguished career in the fields of Mathematics and Physics.
Viktor Kupradze was born in the village Kela, Lanchkhuti district on November 2, 1903. After graduating from the Kutaisi Technical School in 1922, he continued his studies at the faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Tbilisi State University. Viktor’s academic work as a student was exemplary and he was appointed to the position of university assistant in 1927. Kupradze published his first scientific work in 1929 at the age of 26. In 1930, V. Kupradze enrolled at the postgraduate program of the USSR Academy of Sciences. V. Kupradze served as scientist-secretary and senior scientist-researcher at the Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1933-1935). In 1935, he successfully defended doctoral dissertation and was awarded Doctor’s degree in Physics-Mathematics.
Viktor Kupradze had the rare talent to combine organizational efforts in scientific societies and institutes with intensive research, the publication of technical works and teaching responsibilities. In 1935, V. Kupradze returned to Georgia and became Director of A.M. Razmadze Mathematical Institute of Georgian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences 1935 to 1941, in addition to managing various faculties at Tbilisi State University and Georgian Polytechnic Institute. After returning from the battlefield of World War II, Kupradze was granted an award- Honourable Science Worker of Georgia in 1943. Viktor Kupradze was chosen Academician of the Georgian SSR Academy of Sciences (1946), Minister of Education (1944-1953), Rector of Tbilisi State University (1954-1959), head of the chairs of the Georgian Polytechnical Institute and the University, academician-secretary of the mathematics and physics department (1963-1981), member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR (1963-1985). Kupradze was a member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals including Differential Equations (USSR), Advances in Mathematical Sciences (USSR), and the Journal of Thermal Stresses (USA), President of the Georgian Mathematical Society (1962-1968), Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR (1954-1962) and member of the Soviet delegation to the International Congress of Peoples of Asia and Africa in Delhi (1947).
Kupradze was the author of 120 works and 7 monographs, which included many fundamental papers in mathematical physics and mechanics, the mathematical theory of elasticity, and problems on theory of differential and integral equations. His publications on the progress and completion of a number of domains of mathematics made an immense contribution to the field. Many of his works have been translated and published in foreign languages. V. Kupradze passed away on November 24, 1985.